>> we are all south africans. we have had the good fight. but now this is the time to heal those wounds. and to build a new democracy. >> nelson mandela, liberator, dead at the age of 95. >> i think you should celebrate what he has given us. >> and president obama on income inequality. >> i believe this is the defining challenge of our time. >> fast food workers demanding higher pay. >> i'm still stuck at eight dollars an hour. we do not even make ends meet. >> tensions over chinese airspace. >> this is a huge consequential

relationship. it will affect the course of the 21st century. >> and republican males get some schooling on how to run against women. >> some people are not as sensitive asas they should be. >> the south african embassy in washington is located across the street from the british embassy. not too many years ago when nelson mandela was in prison, randall robinson used to lead demonstrations at the embassy against the apartheid regime. today, the is s a new statute of nelson mandela in front of the embassy. amazing. nelson mandelaied this week at the age of 95. >> we have lost one of the most influential, couragegeous, and

profoundly good human beings any of us will share time with on this earth. he no longer belongs to us. he belongs to the ages. >> never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful earth will attain the spirit of the oppressor of one over another and suffer the indignity of the world. >> mandela emerged after 27 years in prison to becomehe first black president of south africa. he reached out to his former oppressors with a message of forgiveness and reconciliation. but lelet's not turn him into saint francis. this is one tough combatant. >> what do you say you when you are in the presence of one of the most wering figures of our time?

you gawk. that is what you did. that is what i did when i had the privilege of having dinner with him. this is one of the most consnsequential figures we have ever seen. we will hear a lot of talk about great football plays, great throws. we have taken that word and it means nothing, except when you speak about the life and legacy of nelson mandela. what he did. how he transformed that country and the way we look at each other and the way nations have to deal with each other. >> charles. >> he was miraculous. the transitions that were made with so much dependent on this one man. number one, he insisted on no revenge. whicich is very unusual, revolutionary regimes when they come to power. in africa and elsewhere. we have civil wars in the middle east, all over the world as

result of the formerly oppressed taking revenge. he established a truth and reconciliation commission. came tothat first chile. he applied it and it worked. he set an example. he left power after one term. you look at zimbabwe next door where robert refuses to step down. he has had a policy of revenge. he wrecked his country. you can see a mirror image of what could have been. and what wasn't all because of the goodness and the vision of one man. >> one of my colleagues at npr put it well, he was for south afrika george washington and abraham lincoln all rollednto one. that does not make him, as we said, a saint.

he was theost crafty ofof politicians. he would use things he needed to. to appeal to his constituencies and fend -- and offend others, on purpose. his central purpose was to make the country work and to include everybody. and that was, you know, in modern times unheard of in this kind of situation. i actually would suggest that some of those years in prison allod him to think through what he was going toto do and to assemble people into one central idea and then keep them on track for that so that in the four years he governed. and the four years prior to that when they established the constitution he was able to really -- i do not think there is anybody, any of us have seen of our age in this century, like this. >> while in prison, mandela studied the language of his

oppressors. he studied history. bettttero walk in the other fellow's issues, it makes it easier to negotiate when you do that. >> yes, he did have the time. he had 27 years. almost three decades. we are told and some of us believe that one person can make a difference. he is proooof positive conclusie evidence one person can make a difference and change not simply a brutally oppressive and racist and violent south africa, and not to seek revenge or assign recrimination but in fact to be the apostle, the architect and the engineer of reconciliation. it is an amazing, amazing ample of leadership and humanity. >> ok.

we will take a break. the rich get richer. we will take a break. the i was going to the library to do my homework.

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to do r homework. now, more than one million americans have been connected at home. it makes it so much better to do homework, when you're at home. welcome to what's next. comcastnbcuniversal. >> when michelle, the daughter of a ship worker and a secretary wanted to go to college, just like me, this country helped us afford it. until we could pay it back. so what drives me as a grandson, a son, a father, as an american, to make sure that every striving, hard-working kid in america has the same incredible chance this country gave me. >> income inequality. the presidt is gambling g this is the next big thing politilly. he says he will devote thehe ret of his time in office to closing the gap between rich and poor. when he says income inequality

is the defining challenge of our time the walall street journal ys he should know. few presidents have done more to crease ithen he has. is thahat fair? >> i do not thinit is fairr accurate. i think the problem is when you call something like inincome inequality the greatest challenge of our time, what is the answer? that is where we come up short to what we do about a problem of this enormity. you can increase the minimum wage, no argument there. but that does not solve the problem of income inequality. you have to go back to your basic things, individual's abilities to aspire to their fullest potential. education is a major part of it. th is not obviously available to the extent it should be to help people overme the other limitationons. there are so many stctural problems that have to be addressed.

we do not even get close to that with this spee. >> charles, according to a polling,g, most americans beliee the rich are geing cher, the poor arere getting poorer. 92% of democrats believe that. 50% of americans. it does s not help the republicans' image. talking about tting food stamps. >> i think the polls are right and obama has been over that gap. the memedian house hold come was $56,000. is $5252,500. there has been a drop in median income. while the rich have watched their stocks double since the day obama came into offe. on the one hand he has a fed pumping up, inflating the pricinof housing and ststock, deliberately by prting a

trillion dollars a y year of money. and on the other hand we have a drdrop, and this is unprececede, a drop in the recovery. this has been going on -- >> excuse me. can i -- >> i am going to finish first. obama comes in as if he is a bystander. if he were it would ban , interestining issue. he has beein office five years. the problem has gotten worse. now he discovers it. >> excuse me, there is another branch of government called the congress. a lot of the remedies obama has recommended have gone nowhere in the lalast coue of years. we will start there. secondly, i do not think the speech aually had all whwhole bunch of remies.s. but if you do t face this problem, if we do not face this problem,e are no longer the most mobile society and the world. that we have lost the middle class we once prized. if wdo not start to think

about ideaeas to change that, en though this week the unememployment rate went down. we had a real expansion in jobs for the first time in a long time. we can't get diverted by that. this is a problem m we have to ta about. >> the wall street journal sayss the president is moving left on ththe economy to cover up t failures of obamacare. income inequality was enough to get the yor of new york elected. >> income inequality is a reality. you can't argue about it. it is deningng. the realality is, first of all that the financial sector of the country has gotten bigger and more important anand has bier slice of thehe pie. basilly we are responsible for alall of the pain and all of the dislocation american suffered in the financial crisis and d has done this well since that time. the median incncome, household

income, has leveled off or even fallen. the president t is speing the truth. one could say because of health care, whwhatever. this is the central question of our time. if you take american mobility, which s fallen, that somebody born to deprivation, the opportunity and education to rise, we are less abable to do that then were. we have to reclaim that appeared -- that. >> i think we have to back to something else, obama took office and literally wasted two years doing almost nothing while median income went down. seems to me he took office at a time when we were in a recession. and that efforts to stimulate the economy, to get the economy gogoing, was resisted almost evy step of the way.

>> people e buyi american cars. the ford motor company. >> we had to rescue the auto industry. a number of basic thgs had to happ. people did suffer. and now we are recovering. it is not as though nothing was going on. that everything was hunky-dory and on his watch things went down. that is not the case. >> senor elizabebeth warren was talkinabout a $22 an hour minimum wage and expanding social security. >> why stop at $22? $50. if you are going to thk macally,y, think big. preposterous. the idea you can create wealth by legislating it. not going to happen. >> you can create a decent floor. it may not be $22 an hour. if you have people earning more money, they will spend more money. >> yes.. and ifou have industries wherere you raise the wage beyond what

they can sustain, you get a loss of employment. it is a law of nature. the real problem is teenagers. 98% of people who work full-time make above the minimum wage. the problem is that those making the minimum wage, five out of six are teenagers. >> untrue. not so. >> disagreement here. >> it will not deter me. 22%, we have a 22% unemployment among teenagers. 36% among african-americican teenagers. we know you are going to decrease the employment. if that t is what you want, take it. that is not a solution. >> 52% of the fast food workers are older people a a they are on some kind of public assistance because theyan't make it on ose salaries.

>> 88% of those who work minimum wage are at least 20 yearsld. that is a fact. that is a reality. you are entitled tyour opinion, not your facts. the minimum wage was 53% of the average wagege in this country n 1968. today it is 37%. 54% of the people at minimum wage, that is full-time work for them. one quarter of the children in the country have a parent at minimum wage. >> could you live on seven dollarars 34 cents an hour? >> would you aee to have a minimum wage with the exception for teenagers on their first job? >> no. >> you wldn't. so you would be willing to see teenage unemployment rise.

>> youou can't exploit the child leiber. >> we should have a calculator.

>> it is just a pile of rocks but china andapan lay clm to extended itsa has zone to include the airspace overer those islalands. this could getasty. >> it cod and we have not helped our allies, the japanese. we did do a good thing. we sent a warplane without exceedg the chinese demand, asas a way to say we doot recognize this changing of the status quo. >> we are telling thehe commercl pilots to stay away. >> the japanese followed us with the warplanes. they also instructed the

civilian aircraft to ignore all of the chinese demands. so we leleft them a little bit hangnging but woe, when joe biden in china, we seem to have buckckled and rather than demana withdrawal, we seem to let the chinese go south. -- go soft on enforcement. the japanese are left hanging. the koreans and the philippines, everybody in the pacific is looking to the united states and saying, are you serious protecting us?s? >> what about that? >> we have to keep all of the shippingines and trade les open. no question about it. we arere coming late to a party herere. since the wn of time the compition between the chinese and the jajapanese has been central to the world and to that region. china was dominant until the middle of the 19th century when japan modernized. and then jap really became the

preeminent. is contest, you can see it right now, and god bless the united states but our role other than preserving the openne of those trade routes is basilly -- >> wheyou mention japan, we are coming up on december 7. triggers something in my memory. >> we have more to do. our rolele is -- >> wororld war ii. a little while agogo. >> our job is to diffuse the situation. it is at a pointnt where it coud get dangerous. i do not have any problem with the order we gave not to go througugh there. we canan make that argument ourselves ying through their just as we did during the cold war r when we sent trains to shw we had access.

we can continue to do that. what we do not want to do to encourage anything that could be a provocation and set off a confrontation we do not need. >> i wanant to associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman on my rit. >> a majoritamerican see it as the united states playing a less role as world leaders than it did a decade ago. >> it is not only americans, the gulf arabs see it, the poles and the ukrainians, who have beeeen abandoned in their rolt against the russian power grab. and they are wondering in the far east, where is the united states? this is an administratation whi, for its own reasons, has decided on a policy of retreat. it does have conquences. >> wait a minute. let's not just get totally rhetorical about this. the reality is thehe united stas

does not have an appetite for another war after iraq and afghanistan. that is the rereality. afghanistan. that is the rereality. >if i can impart one lesson to a

new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community,un that helps our members connect ecd share ideas to make smart business decisions. be your partners best papartne. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. >> i try to get them more

sensitive. we look around the congress, there are a lot more females in the democratic caucus than there are in the republican caucus. some of our membs are not his as sensitives they shoululd be >> ok, the national republican committee is holding c classes o teach republicans how to deal with women on the campaign trail.

in the 2012 election, democrats charged there was a a republican war on women which prorompted charles to say it is nothing but liberal cocooning. i do not know what that means but it is a hell of a phrase. >> you really have some sympathy for john boehner. you feel like there is a brick wall. he is beating ahead against it. there are a few maxims they should teach people. there is no such thing as legitimate rape. we do not talk about bininders f women. apparentlyn these sessns, they are quoted as saying a lot of our guys have a long way to go. >> you really love this story. all of you. it is cruel to bring it up. obviously the republicans destroyed two candidacies, two chances s because of idiocies pronnced by male candidates. it has to stopop.

if this is the way to do it, i will accept it. or if it takes a tonya harding to break a couple of knees. >> this is truly pitiful. this conversation should have taken place 30 years ago. the speaker is acknowledging in his own caucus thereare people who are neanderthals. that tells it all. it ithe stat of the party itself. >> am i the only one who will stand up for males? the republican minority has ntributed not just the jerks, , christino'donnell, a woman, sharron angle in nevada, a woman. there are equal opportunity abusers here. hats off to john boehner for trying to bring the party into the e 20th century. trying to bring the party into the e 20th century. >> hayou won't take my life.

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